Joint stock company RS-Balt, the founder of the Rosbalt news agency, has decided to liquidate the organization, reports Lenizdat.ru, citing a corresponding entry on the website of the Federal Register.
“The extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of JSC RS-Balt has decided to liquidate and appoint Afonina Larisa Vladimirovna as chairman of the liquidation commission,” the message reads.
In turn, the general director of Rosbalt, Larisa Afonina, said that the liquidation of the company was associated with economic problems that began after the publication was recognized as a “foreign agent”.
“We were named ‘foreign agent’, we tried for two years to obtain justice, because we thought it was wrong, dishonest, but in vain. We cannot continue to exist, because we just don’t have the money for this existence,” Afonina said, explaining that after being granted “foreign agent” status, the publication lost advertising revenue and St. Petersburg. Petersburg.
Ministry of Justice alight “Rosbalt” in the register of “foreign agents” in October 2021. The reason for this was a transfer in the amount of 90,000 rubles from the Sova analytical center recognized as a “foreign agent”, which rented a conference room at the agency. In addition, the Ministry of Justice explained the inclusion of “Rosbalt” in the register by the fact that the agency in its publications referred to media – “foreign agents”.
Earlier, the Rosbalt website said the project leader was Natalya Cherkesova, the wife of former FSB deputy director and former head of the Federal Drug Control Service Viktor Cherkesov. There are currently no such entries on the agency’s website.